WhatsApp May Support Bitcoin Payments via Wuabit Crypto Wallet
In another sign that cryptocurrencies have a solid use case as app payment systems, WhatsApp is getting its own wallet.
WhatsApp may be the next mainstream service to allow digital asset payments, expecting the launch of a third-party wallet in closed beta, reported the Express. The announcement arrived a few weeks after Facebook allegedly planned its own dollar-pegged digital asset. The wallet is not an internal product of WhatsApp but is built by a third party aiming to spread crypto-related services to the WhatsApp user base.
The new wallet, Wuabit, will focus on ease of use, sending digital assets to named accounts, instead of relying on the complex public addresses used until now. The wallet core service will start with Bitcoin (BTC) payments.
The announcement of the upcoming WhatsApp wallet arrives just a day after Twitch discontinued its cryptocurrency tipping system. But crypto payments seem to be here to stay, as apps and social media have managed to add BTC and several prominent altcoins for payments.
Wuabit is an independent startup that also wants to connect other types of payments to social media and chats such as Telegram, Viber, and Facebook Chat. The startup had announced its intention to build a wallet for WhatsApp back in August 2018.
https://twitter.com/mrmx/status/1108675134217437184
Now, the startup is ready with a minimum viable product and prepares for the release of a closed beta version.
In the past, other projects such as Dash (DASH) have attempted to create a wallet that allows the sending of funds to human-readable account names, in the likeness of email. Crypto coin adoption is slow partially because of the need to use a rather complicated and counter-intuitive sending system.
Development of a WhatsApp wallet follows the announcement that the Samsung S10 phone would include an option for crypto asset payments.
The Bitcoin network carries around 300,000 transactions per day in the past weeks, although only a fraction of that number involves direct economic transactions. However, with lowered transaction fees, BTC payments are once again becoming attractive. Crypto payments are also making forays into gambling and gaming apps, social media, and in pre-paid services.